The Odyssey of a Young Nobody
by NeverDreamsOfMe
Summary: Lynn is a teenager living in Traverse Town with her mother and abusive father. Where will she go when she runs away from home? Her saving grace comes in the form of Sora and a place called Hollow Bastion, where she meets someone very special... Finished!
1. Chapter 1

disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. i own lynn. and her mother. and her father. nothing else.

here it is D finally.

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Chapter 1

Lynn laid down on her back on her bed, turning her eyes up to the painted stars on her ceiling. Most of the time, looking at these stars was almost as calming as beholding the real things. Not tonight.

The first shouts of fighting between her parents filtered through the wall behind her headboard. Lynn fixed her gaze on her favorite shooting star and struggled to contain her angry tears. Somehow, her parents screaming at each other affected her as if she was the one being screamed at.

_They might as well be, the way I let them carry on,_ she thought bitterly. The way it was, Lynn had always hid in her room, leaving her parents to the violence of their marital problems. And every single time she lay alone and helpless in the dark, wondering whether she should intervene somehow: jump between them, maybe, or find her father's stash of bottles and pour all of them down the drain. Maybe then they wouldn't fight so much.

The screaming grew in intensity and frequency, gradually growing louder. A shark crack reached Lynn's ears as her father slapped her mother. Lynn flinched as though she had been struck, too. The tears started as more cracks and thumps and foul words barreled through her bedroom wall, muffling the sobs escaping from behind her clenched teeth.

Suddenly, she couldn't stand it anymore. Lynn jumped up, making her bed-springs pulse with the suprising force of her movement. Her tiny shod feet thumped the floor with a furious conviction quite foreign to the petite girl. She almost felt pity that the noise she made was overrode by a larger, heavier thud. She stood, listening to her parents for a moment longer, her hands clenched into fists. Let them go on fighting.

She spun around stiffly, ponytail whipping around her, and faced her bed again. It wasn't the bed she was looking at, however- it was the window behind it. She threw herself over the sheets and kneeled, grasping the frame. She heaved upwards, struggling with all her might to lift the window open. It often stuck, and she'd had to go without a cool breeze on many a summer's night when she had been too afraid to call her father in to help her. No aid was needed now; Lynn, in her fury, had managed to force the window open.

Lynn thrust her head and shoulders outside. She glanced to both sides, checking for any neighbors who might be at their windows, then looked down. The balcony on the second story wasn't that far down. She could escape easily.

A loud crash and the sound of breaking glass made Lynn pause. She turned her head to the right and stared at the wall, as if she could see through it. A roar and one more shattering of glass later, she turned again to the window. She lifted herself to a squatting position. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her feet off the bed.

The window was very wide, so Lynn had no problem swinging her legs around and outside while pivoting her hands to match the motion of her feet. For a moment, she hung from the window frame. She had to move quickly, else she would be seen. She glanced down. The balcony was right below her. After another deep breath, she let go of the windowsill.

After landing on her feet on the balcony, the vault over the railing was easy. Lynn's feet touched the stone of the street in an alleyway of the First District of Traverse Town.

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you like? review if you want. also, if anyone can tell me how to add chapters to a story, that would be just peachy. D i feel like a loser, lol. but this is only my second story and my first was a one-shot. thank you! chapter 2 will be up sometime in the next 2 weeks, ok?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. i own lynn, and her family, and the trees. I OWN THE TREES!! you'll see why shortly.

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Chapter 2

Lynn glanced up. The only movement she could see in her house was the breeze in her curtains. There was no indication at all that she had been seen. Her parents would forget her until morning. _I'll be long gone by then,_ Lynn promised herself. Without a backward glance, she turned away from her building and strode out of the alley.

Lynn stopped for a moment a few steps after exiting the alley to take in everything around her. There were still people milling about in the square- chatting, laughing, walking to one of the shops. The patio of the restaurant to her left was full of boisterous people. Lynn took a deep breath, filling her nose with the scent of fries, people, and clean night air. Beyond the lights of the square were the lights of the sky. The girl gazed at the stars fondly, with a new feeling of freedom.

She wandered, not really going anywhere, just soaking up the town. She stood under a tree in the square and craned her neck, looking up at the string of lights twinkling amongst the leaves. Climbing the stairs in front of the accessory shop and turning right led Lynn to a small cottage with a green door. Intrigued, the girl peeked inside the window.

She saw one room with shelves on the left wall, sprinkled with books, various carvings, and clocks. An easel was pushed against the right wall, on which hung more clocks ticking the same rhythm. An old, bearded, bespeckled man sat at a table in the center of the room, sketching something on a big piece of paper. A wooden puppet in the shape of a little boy sat on the floor before the table, his back to the window. Though Lynn could see neither strings or puppeteer, the puppet was gesturing wildly, obviously talking enthusiastically with words that couldn't penetrate the glass. The man nodded and smiled as he drew, not really listening, as if he had heard the monologue many times before. The puppet-boy paused for a moment, his shoulders rising and falling as if to sigh, and said something else almost like he was dejected. The man looked up from his drawing. He looked at the puppet fondly and spoke with a gentle, fatherly expression. The puppet jumped up from the floor and leaped into the man's lap, and they embraced. Lynn, who had never been treated by her father in this manner, was forced to turn away from the tender scene with a lump in her throat.

Seeing nothing interesting behind the accessory shop, Lynn turned and went back the way she had come. She stopped inside the store to look at the display. The rings and chains sparkled innocently under their lighting. She smiled with longing at them and glanced at her reflection in the glass.

Lynn's hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but that didn't stop it from cascading unchecked to the middle of her back. A pair of diamond earrings glittered in her ears, a gift from her deceased grandmother. She wore a tight-fitting sweater, light pink in color, over a white tank top, though the only evidence of the tank was lace peeking out from the V-neck of the sweater. Her legs were covered with a pair of khaki jeans, her tiny feet with a pair of pink flats. Indeed, most everything about the 15-year old was small- chin, nose, fingers- except her eyes. Lynn's grey eyes were big, always open and watching, intuitive.

"I still don't see why we had to buy so many hi-potions!" A whiny voice made Lynn turn to her left. Three people were exiting the item shop at the same time she was leaving the accessory shop.

One of them- the shortest- was a duck. He wore a blue shirt with gold accenting. His hat was blue as well, shading a pair of very large eyes. He carried a mage's staff and went without shoes on his webbed feet. His white feathers were ruffled, as if he had met an angry wind.

There was also a very tall wolf. He was dressed in a pair of yellow pants held up by a black belt and a black vest over a green sweater. He had very floppy ears, and atop his head sat a tall yellow hat. A pair of brown shoes covered his large feet. He seemed to be a bit clumsy- he'd bumped into the door frame on the way out- but had a general aura of calm and open friendliness about him. He held a round shield in his hand.

The boy who had spoken appeared to be Lynn's age, and around the same height. He wore a pair of red shorts, a black, white, and blue zip-up hoodie, and big yellow shoes. His hair was brown and spiky. Lynn couldn't tell much more about him, as his back was turned to her so he could talk with his comrades. He brought his arms up and laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back slightly. Lynn noticed a pair of white, finger-less gloves on his hands. For someone who was just complaining, he was acting very laid-back and casual.

The duck spoke, "Come on, Sora. We're going to Hollow Bastion. We have to be ready for anything." Lynn suddenly realized that no wind was making the duck's feathers bristle; it was his frustration at the boy.

"Donald's right," the wolf said reasonably, "We don't know what's out there."

"Yeah, well, I wish being prepared wasn't so heavy," the boy said bitterly. Underneath his irritated tone, Lynn could sense the joking and affection for his friends in his voice.

_Hollow Bastion, _Lynn thought. She had never heard of such a place. She liked the sound of it. She wondered why they were going there, and more importantly, where it was. A plan sprang into her mind, catching her by surprise with the boldness of it. It could work, if...

She would just have to ask. _Now or never, _she said to herself, trying to steel her resolve. She took a deep breath. She walked up behind the boy, who was now laughing with his companions, and tapped him on the shoulder, "Excuse me."

He spun around, lowering his arms. Lynn saw now that what she had mistaken for a pair of shorts was really a unitard-type thing under his hoodie. A navy blue belt circled his waist. Around his neck was a necklace with a crown charm. His blue eyes changed from amused to surprised to curious in the instant it took for him to face her.

"I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard you talking about a place called 'Hollow Bastion.' I've never heard of it before; where is it?" She watched with puzzlement as his eyes now unveiled horror.

"Well... it's kinda far away...," he seemed very uncomfortable with Lynn's simple question.

"Yup. It's a whole 'nother world!" The wolf spoke up, earning himself a scorching look from the duck.

"We're not supposed to meddle!" The duck exclaimed angrily.

"Oh, right..." the wolf put his hand to his mouth, as if he had spoken too much.

As they squabbled, Lynn's mind was racing. Another world? She had heard whispers amongst the townspeople of refugees fleeing from their homes and the Heartless to come to Traverse Town, but Lynn had never stopped to think about where they might be coming from. The very idea blew her away.

"Well, anyway," the boy turned back to Lynn, "Why are you asking?"

"I was wondering if, umm... this is going to sound really awkward, but I was wondering if you could take me with you." Lynn grimaced inwardly at her social ineptitude, but firmly stood her ground. This might be her only chance to get away.

An awkward silence ensued. Lynn stood undeterred by their unbelieving stares.

"Absolutely not!" the duck exploded.

"Hold on, I think we should think about this," the wolf said.

"But why?" the boy asked incredulously.

"I'm running away."

"To Hollow Bastion? That place is crawling with Heartless!"

"I'm not afraid of any Heartless," Lynn declared. Time and time again she had heard the refugees relate the horrors of the fate of their homes and loved ones taken by the Heartless. Though depressed by the tales, Lynn was never frightened. She had more important things to worry about- like what her father was doing to her mother while Lynn was out.

"What could be so bad here that you're running away to a place overrun by Heartless for?" the boy demanded.

Lynn turned her head away, biting her lip, tears welling up in her eyes. Maybe she was making a mistake. An image of a memory flashed before her eyes...

_A 14-year old Lynn sat on the couch in the darkened living room with her sobbing mother, holding an arm around her shoulders and a package of frozen corn to her blackened eye. The danger had passed for now; her father was out cold on the bedroom floor..._

Lynn took care of her mother, nursing her ravaged body and providing a shoulder to cry on. Lynn was both the solace in and the product of a marriage cracked down the middle. Because of this, she both loved and hated her mother. Loved her because she had always found time to comfort Lynn as much as her daughter comforted her, and protected her child from her father's rages. Hated her for not defending herself against her husband.

_Mom needs me,_ Lynn thought. She closed her eyes and two tears leaked out unnoticed from under her eyelids. What would her mother do if Lynn left her? Lynn tried to imagine the heartbreak, the confusion, the fear. What was she putting her mother through with this act of resentment and rebellion?

_The only thing I can do,_ Lynn thought, _is hope she follows me. _Where Lynn took the initiative, her mother followed her daughter's lead. Surely her mother would follow Lynn's example.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so-," Lynn was jerked back to earth by the boy's voice.

"No, no, it wasn't you," Lynn said, hiding her wet face in her hands, "I just..." a sob escaped her throat, "my mother..." her voice was fading, the tears choking her, "what will she do without me?" she finished in a helpless whisper, catching fresh tears in her palms.

As she cried, she felt an arm slip around her shoulders. She accepted the comfort gratefully, even though it was from a stranger. There it stayed until all her sorrow had been shed. She uncovered her face to find the boy standing next to her, looking at her with a mixture of pity and apology. The wolf and duck had come closer, but while the wolf looked emphatic, the duck looked mostly guilty.

"Okay," the boy said quietly. Lynn turned to him, hardly daring to believe what she just heard, "Okay. We'll take you with us."

Shock and gratitude flowed within Lynn. She closed her eyes against another sea of tears.

"Thank you," she murmured, "Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me."

"My name's Sora," Lynn opened her eyes as the boy introduced himself, "And this is Donald," he pointed to the duck, "And Goofy," he gestured at the wolf.

"I'm Lynn."

"Are you ready, Lynn?" Goofy asked gently. He seemed to like the idea of another person joining their party, whereas Donald looked skeptical and somewhat annoyed.

Lynn took a deep, shuddering breath. _Keep my mother safe._

"Yes," she said, letting her breath out, "I'm ready.

--

FINALLY chapter 2's done, that took a while! sorry, i've been busy with schoolwork and such xP review if you want, chapter 3's alot shorter so it's coming sooner! thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. just lynn and her family.

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Chapter 3

"Sorry we don't have another seat," Sora apologized for the third time. He turned around in his chair and looked sheepishly at Lynn on the floor.

"It's fine," she answered. She really didn't mind. The cockpit of their ship- they called it the "gummi ship"- had a dome completely open to the heavens around it. She thought it better to look up at the stars they passed by, rather than where they were going to. Or where they were leaving from.

_Mommy._ The word stamped itself across Lynn's mind. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine her mother's face without a single bruise or cut. If she could, Lynn would take an eraser and obliterate all of them forever. Eventually, the nastiest cuts healed even though some of them had been reopened multiple times by Lynn's father.

But what of the cut Lynn was opening upon her mother's heart now? Would this one mend like all the others? Instead of opening a path for her mother to follow, was Lynn forcing her to a life of pain and suffering longing for her lost daughter forevermore? Lynn's heart wrenched as she imagined her mother dying alone, wasting away in grief, but Lynn never finding out.

_They say ignorance is bliss, but in this case, it's merely a knife through my heart, _Lynn thought, laying down on the floor of the ship, watching the heavens speeding by, trying her very best not to think. Eventually the smooth, slightly rocking motion of the ship, her exhaustion from these few emotional hours, and the hushed, hurried whispers of Sora, Donald, and Goofy's conversation lulled her into a blessed dreamless sleep.

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told you chapter 3 was alot shorter xDD about 16 paragraphs shorter, lol. review if you want, thanks for reading! chapter 4's coming (it's another long one xD)!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. only lynn.

again, sorry it took so long. i just finished a research paper and wrote 10 senior letters for band so i've been swamped. x( anyway, here it is.

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Chapter 4

When Lynn opened her eyes, all she saw was a sunset sky the color of her sweater and a cerulean-hued cliff before random scenes from the previous night played themselves in her mind.

She did it. She had successfully run away from home. Strangely, Lynn felt no sense of victory or accomplishment. In fact, she didn't feel... anything. Like any emotion she felt would be but a faint echo of what it should be, reverberating off the walls of her empty chest. Lynn wished she could sleep again, sleep forevermore if only to escape this dreadful hollowness. She took a great, shuddering breath in, letting it out in a half-hearted, mournful sigh, and sat up.

The first thing she noticed was that the cockpit was empty. There was no sign of Sora, Donald, or Goofy. The second thing she noticed was the absense of movement. Everything felt so still after a night (if, in space, there was such a time) of constant motion. Or had it been a night? Perhaps Lynn had fallen asleep moments before reaching their destination, and had been so deeply asleep that she'd missed the landing. Maybe Sora, Donald, and Goofy had left hours ago.

What were they doing here, anyway? Sora had said the place was "crawling with Heartless," and they _had_ purchased a great number of supplies, so they were obviously expecting trouble. Of what sort, Lynn didn't know, _and neither did they_, she thought, suddenly remembering Goofy's voice from what seemed to be an age ago, "We don't know what's out there..."

All this Lynn pondered, sitting cross-legged and listless, staring at the cockpit wall but not seeing it. She wondered idly what she looked like after sleeping on the cockpit floor. She shrugged it off- looks aren't everything- and besides, no one was around to see her in this state. She was alone.

_Alone. _The word ripped at her, like some dormant beast had awakened and was intent only on ripping her very soul apart. It roared in triumph at her agony, reveled in her angst.

Lynn felt that the walls were closing in on her, compressing the air so she had to gasp for breath, her head spinning. She couldn't stay in the cockpit with nothing but her misery any longer. She crossed the small space to the controls on her knees. Her eyes swept the control board anxiously; there were so many different buttons. Panic rising within her, she slapped what she hoped was the right one. The clear dome above her retracted long enough for her to scramble out, still breathing heavily, fighting the horror inside her. She landed on her knees in her haste. Breathing fresh air did her some good; she was calmed slightly and her terror ebbed. Lynn stood and looked about her as the cockpit dome closed itself.

The sound of rishing water filled Lynn's ears. There seemed to be a lake of some sort below the stone where she stood. She could see clear to the bottom, but no life inhabited it. Though Lynn heard the waterfall, there were no mists of water falling into the pool. In fact, the water seemed to be moving _towards _the cliffs...

The girl gasped. Defying any and all laws of gravity, water cascaded up the rock: a translucently blue and silver sheet caressing the cliff face. Her eyes followed the stream of water up, up, until it disappeared over the other side of the cliff, sending a fine spray up into the delicate rose quartz sky. Scanning the line of the cliff, Lynn's eyes fell upon a plume of gray smoke, a tower thrust into the sky...

The castle had a rather unfinished and broken air to it. While some of its visible parts where of white stone, most was red, as if its face had been ripped apart. It stood straight, yet it twisted and turned in on itself at the same time. A large symbol was stamed into the architexture. Lynn didn't know what any of it meant, and it made her skin crawl.

Bringing her sights a little closer, Lynn stared with surprise at a large bubble suspended in midair above and a short way before her. She wondered why it didn't float away, but then she surmised there must be water _inside_ the bubble- there were smaller bubbles floating inside it. _Bubbles within a bubble..._ But if it was filled with water, why didn't it fall?

She ran to the edge of the rock she was standing on and leaped, her arms outstretched. She didn't even think about what she was doing, she just had to know, her dull curiosity overpowering everything else.

The bubble let her hit it, but it didn't pop. Before Lynn realized what was happening, the bubble was swallowing her, then she _was _the bubble, inside of it was a swirling mass of water, and she was falling. She blinked-

- and found herself on the bottom of the lake, as herself, her upper body encased in the bubble now full of air so she could breathe; and she did, an intake of amazement, as she stepped forward-

- suddenly, Lynn was jerked backwards, being lifted by a force she could not see; she was being folded into the bubble once more, and moving towards the surface...

The bubble broke. Lynn landed with a small spash- _on top of the water._ She gasped, looking horrified at her own feet, but her flats stood perfectly dry on the surface of the water. In fact, she was _all_ dry.

Lynn looked up at the rocks suspended in the air above her. These she had to use to get to the castle. She couldn't stay here, didn't want to, because doing something made her forget the horrible emptiness: hence the reckless leaping at the bubble.

_Hollow Bastion,_ Lynn turned the name over in her mind. A humorless smile twisted her lips, _The perfect name for this place, that echoes exactly how I feel inside._

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that's all! review if you want to. chapter 5 is coming soon! it's the longest so far, but since my paper and senior letters are done, it should be up sooner. thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts. just lynn and "quest for a cure." you'll see what i mean shortly.

sorry, sorry. work and school and grr. well, here it is! enjoy!

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Chapter 5

Time was a blur. Memory was not. Lynn remembered everything of that day until the day she dies; how time in that present moment crawled by, but looking back one realized that such moments were indeed very short ones.

Lynn leapt from rock to rock with a kind of careful abandonment- guaging the distance between the rocks, but not actually caring whether or not she made it across. It made no difference to her if she fell to her rocky death below. It was only after she had stumbled to her knees for the sixth time that she thought to observe her surroundings. She brushed off her khakis and glanced around. This rock was bigger than the others; there was a shallow pool of water in the center of it, a lone arch standing guard facing the direction of the landing place below.

_Alone. _Her insides shrieked in agony. She took a running start to the next rock.

After pulling herself up from the edge- a heart-stopping incident in which she almost fell- Lynn stood on the top-most rock. She climbed a few of the steps leading to the very top and looked into the horizon. She paused, stymied; it never occured to her how far away the castle was. There was a whole ocean of sky between her and her destination. _How am I going to get there?_ Unsure, she stepped onto the next stair.

Something materialized out of the air before her: a platform with bars circumventing the perimeter, held in place by vertical bars curving upward to meet in a point above the center of the floor. It was at this joining that a light gathered, growing brighter until it blinked-

- and Lynn found herself on the platform as instantaneously as she had been fused with the bubble. She cried out in shock; the platform was moving towards the castle in a perfectly straight line, though there was nothing visible propelling it forward. A glimmer in her periphreal vision caught her attention, and she glanced up. The light that had glowed before taking her onto the platform still shone. _That must be what makes it move,_ she thought before the light gathered brightness again, and she was spirited off the platform.

Lynn craned her neck up, leaning back slightly to take in the castle. It was _huge_, much bigger than it had looked on the first rock where the gummi ship landed. She supposed she would have been impressed, even awed with its size, if the nothing inside her had allowed room for such feelings.

She saw an open door ahead. She walked towards it, back straight, head up. Whatever her destiny, Lynn was willing to embrace it. _After all, _she thought, _I have nothing left to lose._

The room- or, rather, entryway- Lynn entered was circular. The carpet was a rich blue, as was the enormous chandelier that hung from the unseen seiling. In the middle of the double staircase was a fountain, the water cascading from the mouth of a snarling beast. The landing the stairs led to were open to the floor Lynn was standing on, and was supporting a third story with pillars, though no means to reach the third story could be seen.

Again, Lynn felt nothing at its strange, dark beauty.

She climbed the stairs, noticing a door through an arch directly in front of her. The same symbol that was on the face of the castle was on this door. Lynn stepped forward to investigate.

The symbol resembled a heart, but it looked wrong. The bottom was elongated into a sort of upside-down clover-leaf shape. There was an X through the heart half, with triangles placed on the X; they reminded Lynn of thorns. Lynn suddenly had a shadow of a feeling: not fear exactly, but a sense that this thing, whatever it was, was bad. She turned and fled to another door that she had seen while climbing the staircase.

A gasp escaped Lynns lips as she opened the door. Books. Shelves of them. This place had water you could walk on, platforms that moved seemingly of their own accord, and a _library_? There seemed to be no end to its magnificence. Lynn closed the door behind her, mouth still open.

She stayed in the library for an immeasurable amount of time, browsing slowly, taking her time. Occasionally she would select an interesting-looking one from the shelf and read a passage. She devoured books; reading had provided an escape from the chaos around her. _This time is no different_, she thought, placing an old volume back on the shelf.

As she wandered deeper into the library, Lynn came across a whole wall of windows. Hugging this wall was a flight of stairs leading to a second, much smaller, story. Under the stairs was a table and a high-backed chair bathed in golden light. Lynn, who had just selected a book, went and sat in the chair. She opened the book titled "Quest for a Cure," and began to read.

_What a thrilling tale! _Lynn thought. The story was about a girl who set out to find a remedy for her mothers disease. She flew on eagle-back to a far-away land to search for knowledge of the cure. Along the way, she met a boy who turned out to be her long-lost brother. Together they race against time to save their mother, the one thing most precious to them...

It was at this point in the story that Lynn finally drew the parallels. Horrified, she slammed the book shut and threw it as hard as she could at the back of the staircase in front of her. She laid her forehead on her knees and howled with shame, rocking back and forth in the fetal position with the force of her emotion.

What was she _doing_ here? She had left her mother to die in Traverse Town, alone and without any hope of her only daughter coming home. Instead of running away to who knows where, Lynn should have stayed, tried to get her mother out as well as herself, and tried to find help. Instead of the healing she was looking for, Lynn had only crippled herself, and even worse, her mother. Self-loathing, guilt, regret, and utter helplessness ripped at Lynn, so raw and painful that she was gasping for air as tears streamed down her cheeks.

At length, Lynn managed to calm down. She stayed curled up in the chair, resting her right cheek on her knees so she stared at the bookshelves. It was as if all her feeling had been released as tears; she felt as hollow as before.

_I'm sorry, Mom,_ Lynn thought, _I was so selfish..._ Another tear rolled down her cheek. She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to pull herself back before she lost it again.

Slowly, she uncurled herself and stood up from the chair. She didn't want to stay here any longer. Books had been an escape, in a former life perhaps, but now they trapped her within her shame, reminding her mercilessly of what she had lost. She fled for the door through which she had entered.

Touring the castle, Lynn knew not where she was going, nor did she care. Sometimes she rode more of the platforms like that one that had initially brought her to the castle. Often she ended up in the same room shose sole purpose seemed to be for those lifts. Other times she found herself on the outside of the castle, always at the front, deduced from the fact that the strange heart-like symbol was always in view. It seemed that she moved generally upwards, the castle's tattoo moving closer every time she stepped outside.

Once, she rode a large platform across the face of the castle, the mark in full view. Looking at it, whole and divided all at once, ripped in places so that cogs were seen turning inside, made a shiver shoot down Lynn's spine.

Other than that instant, she was numb.

On her wanderings, Lynn stumbled upon what appeared to be a chapel. The room was shaped like a keyhole, in that there was a rectangular portion, where Lynn was standing, that curved out into a circle. Along the walls were torches blazing with a green fire, and in the middle of the circular part of the room there was a ring of light. Looking up, Lynn saw a blue stained-glass window, glowing brilliantly in the sun shining through it. Other than that, the room was dark.

Lynn stepped forward, treading quietly on the forest-green carpet. This room was hushed, but tit was a different sort of silence. In the library, the quiet was relazed, lazy, beckoning to stay for a while and soak up the words on the innumberable pages. Here, the silence was forbidding, almost condescending, like it was sacrelige to utter a single syllable.

Again, she saw the symbol. She stopped in the dead center of the room. There it was, above the alter in an alcove in the wall. What _was _this place? It seemed this image was constantly following her. What did it mean if it was even in their _chapel?_ Lynn was beginning to feel something: prickles of suspicion and horror.

She turned and, seeing an exit to her right, hurried greatfully towards it.

This door led her to the lift room, to the very top where light was filtered golden through yellow stained-glass windows. It was here, suddenly, that Lynn was caught off-guard by a memory of Sora's voice, _"What could be so bad here that you're running away to a place overrun by Heartless for?"_

_Overrun?_ She hadn't even seen one. Not only of Heartless, but of anything. Lynn couldn't possibly be the only thing in a castle this big. _I should have run into something by now... right?_

As if called by her thoughts, something emerged from the entryway at the other end of the landing. Lynn gasped. The thing- whatever it was- was small, black as the shadows from whence it came, except for it's eyes: pale yellow orbs that made Lynn's skin crawl. It wouldn't- or couldn't- stay still: standing in one spot, it constantly moved it's head, as if looking for somthing, it's arms swinging at it's sides. _A Heartless._

It stepped forward. Lynn jumped back against the wall, revolted by the twitchy, jerky way it moved. _Don't they prey on people's hearts?_ Her own beat more voilently in her chest, betraying her to the hideous creature moving ever closer. Her eyes got wide, bracing herself for the end.

It ran right past her, into the chapel.

Lynn sagged against the wall, breathing heavily, relieved that the danger had passed, but confused as to why it didn't just jump her and devour her heart. _And why was it alone? _she wondered. The refugees in Traverse Town had talked about the Heartless as a plural, a swarm of chaos and destruction. Why was this one a renegade? Lynn cautiosly made her way into the room the lone Heartless had left.

Lynn's first impression of this room was fire. Two gargoyle statues holding candles stood sentry at this entryway, and at the foot of the stairs across from her. There were large cauldrons of blue flames lining the way to the staircase. Turning her head to look at one of these, Lynn gasped again.

There was a girl in the wall.

Lynn gravitated to her with a sick sense of intrigue. The girl in the wall was beautiful: tan, with long black hair, dressed in teal clothes the style of which Lynn had never seen before. She seemed to be asleep, yet she was encased from the waist down in a jagged, rock-like substance. Looking around, Lynn saw that there were five more trapped like this girl, all different looking and wearing different styles of clothing. Lynn's breath quickened, new tears flooded her eyes. Was this what they did to girls who had trespassed in this castle? Lynn was truly afraid now.

As if on cue, half a dozen Heartless like the one Lynn had encountered in the lift room appeared out of thin air, forming a half-circle around her and the girl in the wall behind her. They stood for a moment, never ceasing to twitch in their horrible way, looking at her. She stepped to her left.

They leapt at her. Lynn jumped to the right at the last second. Even so, one brushed her hand. She screamed; touching one of those things was like touching ice that sapped all warmth from her body and left her chest feeling terribly empty. The Heartless, now alerted to her new position, turned towards her.

Lynn ran for her life, up the stairs to an ovan-shaped landing in the middle of the room, the Heartless on her heels. She tripped on the last stair and went flying, her velocity carrying her far and landing her hard on the floor. There she lay, sprawled and breathless with fright and sobbing, waiting again for her death.

Again, it didn't come. She heard grunts and exclaimations, like someone was fighting, the whoosh of a weapon through the air, the sound like the dissipation of a solid. Then everything was still, save for the sound of Lynn's panting. There she lay for a long while, her heart never ceasing to pound. Finally, she raised herself up from the floor into a cheerleader-sit position. She slowly turned her head and flinched.

She was not alone in the room.

---

there you go! i'm sorry to say i haven't even started writing chapter 6 yet, and since i'm so busy lately it might not be coming for a while. thank you for being so patient. thanks for reading! please review!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts.

yaay have fun reading! :D

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Chapter 6

The boy in the room seemed to be as shocked to see Lynn as she was to see him. His hair was an unusual color- not quite blonde, but much closer to light brown like graham crackers. It was arranged into small yet surprisingly numerous spikes. He was wearing two zip-up jackets: a plain black one under a slightly off-white one, the red underside of the collar turned up. The pants he was wearing were baggy, like the boys wore back home, but his were different in that there was a hip and upper leg part that was black, and snapped on about mid to upper thigh were khaki legs. His shoes were blue and black with red straps on them. Around his left wrist was a black and white checkered band- and in his hands were two variations of the same key-shaped weapon.

Lynn made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeak. She scooted backwards, trying to put distance between herself and this potential attacker, her primitive fear blocking out everything else.

"No, wait." The boy's voice made Lynn pause. It was so soft, so unexpected from a boy who looked so rough around the edges and who held two formidable weapons in his hands.

He took a slow, cautious step forward, "It's ok. I won't hurt you. You're all right now. The Heartless are gone." At those words, the blades in his hands disappeared in a soft but abrupt gathering of light. He stopped to watch them go, opening his hands to let the light swallow them. Other than that pause, he kept coming towards Lynn, slowly and deliberately.

He was directly in front of Lynn now. He crouched, looking into her eyes. Lynn was taken aback: they were the bluest eyes she had ever seen. They reminded her faintly of someone...

"Let me help you," he said, extending his arm to her. Lynn looked at his offered hand, then back to his eyes. She didn't know what it was, but she knew those eyes from somewhere and she trusted them. She placed her hand in his and he pulled her up. Lynn noted that he had a strong grip despite his thin appearance, but his hand was cold. _After fighting those Heartless? Shouldn't his hand be sweating, at least?_

Upon standing and letting go of the boy's hand, Lynn wobbled a little bit. Her legs were shaking, still not wanting to support her even though the danger was gone. The boy caught her before she fell, steadying her with his hand on her right arm, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Lynn's voice was shaking, too, "Yeah. I think I'm okay." He slowly took his hand off of her arm in response, as if scared she would fall again.

"Thank you," she said after a pause, "for getting rid of the Heartless. What's your name?"

"Roxas. What's yours?"

"Lynn."

"No problem, Lynn. What are you doing here, anyway? It's too dangerous here for a girl like you."

Lynn blushed a little at the compliment, but it faded quickly. She was silent, then, "Making a big mistake." She bit her lip and looked at the floor, trying to make the image of her mother's face go away before she could start crying again.

After she composed herself, Lynn looked up and asked, "Why are _you_ here?"

To her chagrin, Roxas actually looked confused. He looked around, narrowing his eyes as if trying to remember something. "I... I don't know. I feel like I've been here my whole life, but I don't remember anything else before this."

Lynn recognized his words. She had felt that way before, about her father. The only way she remembered him was angry and drunk or otherwise ungover and angry had no memory of him ever being a real father. Sometimes Lynn suspected that he didn't even know she was there.

_But Mom knew. _Mom always remembered her daughter, sending Lynn to her room whenever her father threatened to reach his seemingly ever low boiling point. Always came into her room when he was done raging, drying each others tears and nursing each others hurts, inside and out. Mom had taken care of Lynn just as much as Lynn took care of her. It surprised Lynn to realize just how much she depended on her mother.

Suddenly, Lynn needed her mother's touch, craved it with an urge so strong it nearly brought her to her knees again. She had been crying out for help all the time, but it had always been right there. Lynn now saw shamefully that she'd taken it for granted all along.

"What's wrong?" At the sound of Roxas' voice, Lynn snapped back to reality. To her surprise, Roxas reached up and touched her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb, wiping away tears. She hadn't realized she was crying. She looked up at his face. Those striking blue eyes were concerned. Without thinking, she threw her arms around his neck and cried into the collar of his white jacket. Roxas almost stumbled backwards with the unexpected embrace, but after a second she felt his arms wrap around her waist and stroke her back.

"Shh," he said soothingly as Lynn's muffled sobs increased. He tightened his left arm around her and used his right to gently pull out her ponytail (the hair tie was loose anyway) and run his fingers through her hair. Lynn was both reminded of her mother, who often did the same thing, and touched that this perfect stranger, who didn't feel exactly like one, would comfort her in this way.

The tears stopped a lot sooner than Lynn expected. When she was finished, she spent another moment buried in Roxas' collar, wrapped up in the solace of his touch, gathering her energies to do what she had to do. She unwillingly pulled away from him and, looking him straight in his endless blue eyes that betrayed a strange emotion, said:

"I have to go home."


	7. Chapter 7

disclaimer: i do not own kingdom hearts.

last one! here we go!

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Chapter 7

Roxas looked at Lynn, the concerned look back again, "Are you sure? Isn't that the place that caused you the most pain?"

Lynn's eyes popped slightly; how did he know? She had just met him! He couldn't possibly know that after the short while they'd just spent together.

Roxas reacted curiously to his own words. She watched as his eyes grew wide with shock too, the blue threatening to swallow her. He averted his gaze and looked to his right, biting his lip with a guilty and puzzled look on his face.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean-," he started, looking back at Lynn apologetically.

"No, it's okay. You're right. But it's where I have to be." Lynn's voice was absolute with conviction.

Roxas looked at Lynn, his ocean's eyes inscrutable. He took a few steps backwards, scanning her face the whole time. Finally, he broke the gaze and turned to his left. He held up his left hand, palm forward, fingers spread like he was a crossing guard, an intense look on his face. Then, out of thin air, there appeared a black mass, tall and oval in shape. It seemed to be folding in on itself, falling to a central point in the center, but still held itself together. It was hypnotic to look at.

Roxas' hand fell, surprise once more coloring his face, with just a hint of satisfaction. Lynn's eyes flicked from him to the black hole and back again in amazement.

"How did you _do_ that?" she asked.

He turned his head to face her again, cocking it slightly to one side. "I don't know," he answered, "It just sort of happened. Like it was instinct."

"Wait... but what is it?" she stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, facing the swirling black thing. She felt his eyes tear from her to look at it, too.

"It's a portal," he said simply, "To take you back home. Faster than how we got here, but a lot more dangerous."

Lynn swung her head up to look at Roxas' profile. "'We?' But you weren't with us on the ship..."

Roxas looked down at Lynn, mirroring the confused expression on her face, she was sure. After a second, an understanding crept over his face, "Did I say 'we?' Sorry, I meant to say 'you.'"

Lynn had a feeling he was pulling her leg, but she didn't say anything. She looked back at the portal, thinking, _I'm coming, Mom. Hold on for just a little while longer._

She felt Roxas' fingers entwine around hers and squeeze slightly, "Come on. Let's get you home."

Lynn let out the breath she had been holding. She looked at Roxas and nodded, squeezing back. Together they stepped forward into the portal.

It was a bit like walking through a waterfall: Lynn had the feeling of matter opening where she moved and closing behind her, thicker than air but not liquid like water, either. When Lynn opened her eyes on the other side, she didn't see Traverse Town like she had expected. Instead, she found herself in a realm of bright, swirling color with the qualities of smoke. She was just about to say to Roxas that he had made a mistake when he spoke.

"This is the halfway point," he explained, "The Realm of Darkness."

"It doesn't look very dark to me," Lynn remarked, looking around.

"Look." Roxas pointed with his free hand. Straight across from them and about a football field's length away was another portal, set against a dark blue background, whereas the point where they had just come out of was surrounded by rosy pinks and light purples with some grey twisted in. The ground between them was turquoise, blending out of the light colors behind them to fade into the dark ahead.

"Home's just that way," he said, lowering his arm. He looked at Lynn, a small smile on his face. Lynn smiled back at him before turning back to the new portal. _Almost there, Mom._ Again, they stepped forward together.

They were about halfway across the empty space when suddenly a bunch of things popped up out of the ground in front of them, blocking their way. They weren't Heartless, Lynn felt, though these things never stopped moving like Heartless did. No, these creatures were white, taller than Heartless. No eyes and all mouths that appeared to be zippered, these mysterious beings were long-limbed and lanky compared to the Heartless, which had been hunched and grotesquely short-limbed. They had a symbol on their flat heads, different from the one Lynn had seen all over the castle. This mark was shaped like a pointed cross at the top, but was elongated into an upside-down shaped heart at the bottom. Lynn got the same chills she had felt at the castle.

Before she knew what was happening, before she had time to be afraid, Roxas had ripped his hand out of hers and pulled her behind him. The movement was so unexpected she almost fell. As she regained her balance, a growl ripped from Roxas' throat and he threw his arms down. The same weapons he had defeated the Heartless with before were in his hands again. All Lynn saw of him was a blur as he relentlessly attacked the strange creatures, sending them dissapating into the air.

As soon as he defeated the last one, more appeared, this time in a formidable dancing, swaying ring around them.

"They'll just keep coming," Roxas said over his shoulder from his half-crouch in front of her, "You'll have to run for it."

Lynn stared disbelievingly at the back of his head, then glanced at the portal in front of her. Their enemies blocked her path, it was still a long way off, but she wasn't worried about either of those things. "But-,"

"I'll take care of them," he interrupted harshly, "You just run when I say go, you hear me?"

"But what about you?" Lynn cried despairingly.

Roxas turned around and straightened up at the same time. He took in Lynn's frightened expression and gently said, "I'll be okay. You'll be okay. I got your back. Don't worry about me. You have to get yourself home."

"Won't you come with me?" Lynn's voice got higher and shriller. She couldn't leave him behind with all these things intent on killing him. Not after what he had done for her, what he was doing for her now.

He shook his head, "No. I don't think I'm supposed to. I feel a pull in the other direction. This is where our destinies split again."

"But I can't-," Lynn was stopped mid-sentence by Roxas' lips on hers. There was an urgency in the kiss that surprised her. It was also a surprise was how soft his lips were, again belying how edgy he looked... once more without thought, she closed her eyes and kissed him back. After a too-brief moment, he pulled away and she was drowning in the tender ocean of his eyes again. "Roxas," she pleaded.

"You won't leave me behind," he said quietly, looking down, suddenly sounding very sad.

Then it hit her. Now Lynn knew exactly who Roxas reminded her of. She barely had time to think the name before Roxas crouched protectively in front of her again. He eyed the creatures, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, "Get ready. Remember the signal." He paused before adding, "Take care of yourself, Lynn."

Lynn never said anything back. Roxas sprang at the strangers, brandishing his blades. In seconds, three were down. The rest gathered around him, ignoring Lynn.

"GO!" Roxas yelled, meeting Lynn's eyes for a fraction of a second between dispatching one enemy and engaging another. His blue were full of fight where Lynn's grey revealed only fear and distress.

But she went, her long hair streaming out behind her. Lynn thought she had never run so fast in her life. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw two of the things slithering in the air towards her, Roxas right behind them.

She shifted her gaze back to her destination. Forty yards to go. Glancing back over her shoulder revealed that Roxas had killed one of Lynn's pursuers and was turning back towards the other, which was catching up to her...

Thirty yards remained. Roxas was running furiously hard, but the creature was just too fast with too great a head start for him to catch up...

Twenty yards to go. It was practically above her head now. She screamed and veered wildly to the left. The creature followed and crashed into the ground right where Lynn would have been had she not changed direction at the last second. Roxas sprung fiercely at it...

Ten yards left. Roxas had finished off the last enemy, but a new ring popped up around him. Lynn stopped abruptly, mere feet from the portal, torn between his safety and her own.

He saw her hesitate. "Go!" he ordered, running one of the creatures through, "Someone needs you more than I do!"

In that instant, the nasty things turned and started making their way towards Lynn. She gave Roxas one last beseeching look, but he had already charged after them and didn't notice. Seeing how close they were, Lynn whipped around and bounded through the black arch, feeling it snap in a very final, heartbreaking way behind her.

With a start, Lynn found herself back in the middle of her bedroom. She looked around. Nothing was disturbed, everything precisely the way she had left it. It was very quiet- not the way she had left. _What kind of quiet is it, though? _Imagining all the possibilities, Lynn started to panic.

Then she jumped, hearing footsteps outside her door. She turned to her right towards it, bracing herself for the worst. It swung open, squeaking slightly.

Lynn gasped with both relief and joy when she saw her mother's face come through the door. Tear-streaked, with a nasty bruise blooming on her cheek, but it was her mother. Upon seeing her daughter, her eyes widened too. For a split second they stood in absolute silence, looking disbelieveingly at each other, as if afraid they were hallucinating.

"Mommy," Lynn choked out. She fell into her mother's arms and started to cry, more glad than she could have ever imagined to be home.

"Oh, Lynn, where on earth were you?" Mom asked, sounding a little wobbly herself. She stroked Lynn's hair lovingly, "I was so worried about you!"

"I'm sorry, Mom. I won't do it again, I promise. I- I love you," Lynn's closed throat made any more speaking impossible.

Mom's arms tightened around Lynn, "I love you too. sweetie. I'm so glad you came home safe to me."

Lynn closed her eyes and thought of the boy who made that possible, who might have sacrificed himself for her sake. _Oh, please, let him be okay. _He had said that Mom needed her, but Lynn needed her, too, just like she had needed him. She didn't feel like a nobody any longer. She wasn't alone and useless anymore.

_Thank you, Sora._

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the end! i hope you liked it. thanks for reading; my next fanfic should be up soon! catch you later!


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